Hospital Safety 7/22/12

Published On: Jul 20 2012 12:49:27 PM CDT

Patrick Roth suffered several complications following surgery on his back, including a potentially deadly bacterial infection. Patrick Roth "I have memory of being in the hospital bed and in such pain that I was screaming not to die." Many surgical-site infections like the one Patrick Roth had can be prevented, according to Consumer Reports. Yet about one in 20 hospitalized patients develops an infection - and that's only one concern with hospital care. A 2010 government report finds mistakes and other medical harm contribute to an estimated 15-thousand deaths each month. And that's just among Medicare patients. Dr. John Santa Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center "And this figure is conservative. Many of the medical mistakes that occur in hospitals are not reported, so we only know about a fraction of the errors that occur." How safe is your hospital? Consumer Reports analyzed data from more than a thousand hospitals in 44 states and gave each hospital a safety rating in several categories, including: Avoiding infections Readmissions after discharge Clear communication Overuse of CT Avoiding infections Readmissions after discharge Clear communication about drugs and discharge, and The overuse of Cat scans The ratings show that even the best hospitals have room for improvement. John Santa "No hospital got a top score for preventing patients from being readmitted, or for communicating with patients about discharge instructions and new medications." "

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